Donkey Kong Series
The Donkey Kong series is a Nintendo series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, the founder of Nintendo. History It started out with Donkey Kong in the Arcade machines which introduced the world to Donkey Kong, Mario, and the platforming genre. The game was a smash hit, and it warranted two arcade sequels, and the eventual uprising of a Video Game Industry powerhouse, that to this day is one of, if not the, biggest gaming company in existence. Donkey Kong was then retired as a character until he was eventually brought back in Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Donkey Kong Country became the second best selling SNES game because of its use of pre-rendered graphics and its fun platforming gameplay. Donkey Kong Country established Rare, Ltd. as the Donkey Kong series developers. After two sequels and a spiritual successor trilogy on the Game Boy, the Donkey Kong Country franchise went 3D with Donkey Kong 64. Before the 3D adventure, however, Rare, Ltd. also created Diddy Kong Racing, which was very popular, and later spawned two spin-offs (Banjo-Kazooie, and Conker series). After Nintendo sold off their ownership of Rare, Ltd. to Microsoft, Nintendo handed the franchise to Namco who created the Donkey Konga trilogy, however, Donkey Konga did not get the wide-spread support of Donkey Kong Country and thus the third game was never released outside Japan. Nintendo then created the next platformer by themselves, titled Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. Jungle Beat was also a flop, and thus the series was given to an unknown Japanese company named Paon. Rare, Ltd. remade the Donkey Kong Country trilogy on the Game Boy Advance, which received good sales, as well as Diddy Kong Racing DS which sold well. Paon then created DK: King of Swing on the Game Boy Advance, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast on the Wii, and DK: Jungle Climber on the Nintendo DS, none did good sales-wise. While Paon was creating their Donkey Kong games, Nintendo created the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series which was a spiritual successor to the original arcade games. Before Donkey Kong Country was released, Donkey Kong Jr. appeared in Super Mario Kart as one of Mario's biggest characters due to his involvement in the Arcade titles. When it came time for Mario Kart 64 Donkey Kong was added at the last minute, and the game's popularity has put Donkey Kong characters in Mario spin-offs ever since. Donkey Kong characters have appeared in various Mario spin-offs including Mario Party, Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Super Mario Strikers, Mario Hoops 3 on 3, and Mario Baseball. Donkey Kong has also appeared in the Game & Watch Gallery series, Super Smash Bros. series, and the Punch-out!! series. Released Games Image:Donkey-Kong-1.jpg|''Donkey Kong'' Image:DonkeyKongJr.jpg|''Donkey Kong Jr.'' Image:DonkeyKong3.jpg|''Donkey Kong 3'' Image:Donkeykongjrmath.jpg|''Donkey Kong Jr. Math'' Image:Gameboy-donkey kong.jpg|''Donkey Kong'' Image:DKC.jpg|''Donkey Kong Country'' Image:Donkey Kong Land Box Art.jpg|''Donkey Kong Land'' Image:DKC2.jpg|''Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest'' Image:Donkey Kong Land 2 Box Art.jpg|''Donkey Kong Land 2'' Image:DKC3 Cover.jpg|''Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!'' Image:Donkey Kong Land 3 Box Art.jpg|''Donkey Kong Land III'' Image:Diddykongracingntsc.jpg|''Diddy Kong Racing'' Image:Dk64.jpg|''Donkey Kong 64'' Image:Donkey Konga.jpg|''Donkey Konga'' Image:Mariovsdonkeykong.jpg|''Mario vs. Donkey Kong'' Image:Dkonga2.JPG|''Donkey Konga 2'' Image:Dkjb.jpg|''Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat'' Image:Dkkingofswing.jpg|''DK: King of Swing'' Image:DKonga3.jpg|''Donkey Konga 3'' Image:Mariovsdonkeykong2.jpg|''Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis'' Image:Boxart ds diddy kong racing.jpg|''Diddy Kong Racing DS'' Image:Dkbarrelblast.jpg|''Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast'' Image:Dkjungleclimber.jpg|''DK: Jungle Climber'' Image:Mariovsdonkeykong3.jpg|''Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again'' Image:Mlm cover.jpg|''Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!'' Image:DKCR boxart.jpg|''Donkey Kong Country Returns'' Cancelled Games File:CoconutCrackers.jpg|''Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers'' File:Dixie Kong Racing.png|''Donkey Kong Racing'' File:Diddypilot.jpg|''Diddy Kong Pilot'' Spin-off appearances Mario Sports series :Main article: Mario Sports series Donkey Kong characters have appeared in many Mario spin-off series. Commonly, Donkey Kong is a heavyweight and slow character in said games. Other Donkey Kong characters sometimes properly show up in non-Mario and non-DK games File:SuperSmashBros.jpg|''Super Smash Bros.'' File:Super Smash Bros Melee Players Ch.jpg|''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' File:Super smash bros brawl.jpg|''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' Category:Series